The best songs pull you in by making you wonder what’s going to happen. You hear a nice crescendo in the instrumentation… where’s it leading? You hear a captivating twist in the chord progression… Why? Where’s it going? The lyric describes a circumstance or situation… what’s going to happen next? Good music keeps us riveted […]
I haven’t been doing a lot of writing over the past week or two, but that’s normal for me when it comes to those couple of weeks around Christmas and New Years. I love writing, but it’s not necessarily my go-to activity for relaxing. Are you trying to make your lyrics more important in your […]
If you’ve got a melody, but don’t know how to add chords to it, you need to read “How to Harmonize a Melody.” It will show you, with sound samples, a clear step-by-step for adding chords that will make your melody sound great. In most pop songs, the chord progressions you’ll find yourself using will […]
If you write a bad song, you’re in good company. Every songwriter writes a bad one. Writing a lousy song is not a reason to stop. It’s not even proof that you’ve done something wrong. Sometimes, songs just don’t work out. If you’re ready to take your songwriting to its highest level possible, you need […]
There’s so much about songwriting that seems random. You could choose practically any chord progression, any melodic shape, any hook, any combination of words for the lyric. So when you look at it that way, it seems that randomness is a key feature of songs. The success of a pop song often comes down to […]
It seems that the songs that everyone really wants to hear during the Christmas season are the classics — the ones that have been around for the past 7 or 8 decades, or even longer. It begs the question: Can anyone write a new holiday tune that has a hope of taking its place along […]
